In the summer of 2012, Washington state emergency rooms (“ER”) began tracking patients in a statewide database. Expanding Medicaid rolls and legislative attempts to cap reimbursements for non-emergency visits to ERs left the state, hospitals, and physicians knowing they had to do something to cut costs and improve quality of care within the ER setting. The product of their collaboration was the creation of seven “best practices,” known collectively as the “ER is for Emergencies” campaign. In addition to the mandatory, statewide database, the campaign urged health care providers to: More >

If you have ever visited an emergency room in the Commonwealth, chances are that you have seen a “superuser” – a person who uses the emergency room for regular health care instead of opting for a lower-cost alternative such as a primary care physician. Whether Medicaid recipients or uninsured, superusers (also known as “super-utilizers” or “frequent flyers”) increase Medicaid expenditures and drive up the overall costs of health care. In 2012, 4,400 Medicaid recipients used an emergency room ten or more times, and Kentucky Medicaid spent more than $219 million on emergency room use. Superusers, however, do not just waste money. They also waste the valuable time and resources of emergency room providers, creating longer wait times for those experiencing true emergencies. More >